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Knicks 92 Raptors 74

Here I was all ready to sit and scout the Knicks. I had a good time slot on my PVR (PC used as a TIVO) and set the game up to tape. I had a good idea of a study I wanted to do concerning Eddy Curry (which I’ll save for another day). And I actually had some free time, something that’s rarer than all of the above.

Unfortunately for me, Eddy Curry failed to co-operate with the deal. Easy Eddy decided to put in a half day’s work, which I can only assume he did in order to catch some March Madness on a hidden am radio under his chair. Curry played for only 16 minutes, and was a non-factor with 5 points and 1 rebound.

With all that could have gone wrong, I guess I couldn’t have asked for more in terms of the Knicks game. After suffering through another Knick let down Friday night (and I use the term suffering lightly since I was treated to a night at one of the Garden’s luxury suites), I was thrilled with the result of today’s game. Without their outstanding rebounder David Lee, their rejuvenated small forward Quentin Richardson, and their only guard that knows how to get the ball into the post Jamal Crawford, the Knicks blew out the Raptors 92-74.

Marbury and Frye led the Knicks in scoring with 21 and 20 points respectively, but it was the play of Renaldo Balkman that surged New York past their division rivals. Balkman stuffed the stat sheet with 15 points, 12 rebounds, 2 blocks, and 3 steals. He shot a perfect 7 of 7 and had a bevy of dunks, some in transistion and others off of missed shots. Not only is Renaldo pleasing to the statistical eye, but he is a firecracker on the court. On defense Balkman is a fine shot blocker. He had one block in the post and his other was behind the three point line. Balkman also seems to have a good eye for the ball, and isn’t afraid to dive after a fumble. Balkman excels in transition; he’s quick up the court, can handle the ball, and is especially strong in finishing around the hoop.

With the absence of Lee, it was thought that Frye would pick up some of the slack. While Channing has stepped into the starting lineup and had back to back 20 point games, he doesn’t bring Lee’s hyalophilia or energy. But these are Balkman’s strengths. So maybe Isiah would do well to get Balkman in the game more often in Lee’s stead. Although it’s unlikely that Balkman will play like this every night, he’s a low risk player. Renaldo isn’t likely to demand the ball or take a cluster of careless shots. And when Balkman is on, he can lead the Knicks to victory.

56 comments on “Knicks 92 Raptors 74”

“Although it?s unlikely that Balkman will play like this every night, he?s a low risk player. Renaldo isn?t likely to demand the ball or take a cluster of careless shots. And when Balkman is on, he can lead the Knicks to victory.”

Very true, hes the kind of player that i love you see play. His long arms can get in the passing lane, disrupt or block shots, and finish with big dunks on the break. The only issue with him is that occasionally he takes those threes that make me scream at home “DON’T SHOOT THAT”, but hes only taken about 10 all year so its not a real issue.

Agreed. You can tell from the way Balkman moves on the court and from the things he says that he has a very healthy understanding of his role in this team, and that he embraces the role. Outstanding game from him.

Everyone needs to realize a lot of Curry’s problem is that many of the Knicks guards (most notably Francis) do not make concerned efforts to feeding Curry in the post. On top of that it seems as though the concept of the repost is simply not in their basketball IQ. That coupled together with Eddy’s lack of energy in fighting for position can lead to many nights in which he doesn’t end up with a lot of shots. As correctly stated by KnickerBlogger, Crawford really was the only person that could feed the ball into Eddy properly and see he gets enough touches. For Eddy to be a factor you have to give it to him early and often.

It was nice seeing that smaller quick Knicks lineup in the third quarter. Unfortunately a lot of teams can find those mismatches and exploit them. Yesterday in the third quarter the Raptors couldn’t get anything going inside, which I can equate to Isiah mixing up the defenses and some quick hands by Knicks defenders (most notably Balkman). I’m glad to see Balkman getting some action and being finally talked about. He has one of the best +/-‘s on the team and good things just happen when he is on the floor. He’s doing all the things we signed Jeffries to do. I wanna see the Knicks run that 1-2-2 zone with Balkman at the top again in some future games. Balkman is very versitile on the defensive end and flourishes in the zone defense where he has a chance to roam and take advantage of his length and “sticky” fingers. Isiah needs to give him some more minutes because we could use the hussle and muscle. 3-0 in games Balkman plays 30+

Great win today. The third quarter was the best the team has looked in a while. I liked watching the swarming defence and wide open running game. It was a rarity to see more asists and steals then turnovers.

If this fast paced attack is the road to success, then the Knicks should consider trading Curry while his stock is rising this offseason for a big that can play well in this type of up tempo game. Curry has really improved this year but he slows things down. The current injuries have shown that Crawford and Richardson are the only ones capable of getting the ball down low and playing well in a slowed down game. While it is a big risk to give up a player on the rise with Curry’s potential, it’s time to put the pieces in place to balance the roster to fit a gameplan that complements the majority of the players assembled – Marbury, Francis, Robinson, Balkman, Frye, Jeffries and Lee.

Maybe I’m dreaming, but I think there is a market for a big that can dominate in the paint and draw consistent double teams. Curry could be the centerpiece of a deal for Jermaine O’Neal, Gasol or Rashard Lewis. All are looking for a new address and are on teams looking to make changes. Any of these guys would fit right in with the flow of the game I saw today. Thoughts?

Curry and Frye are both weak rebounding-wise and defensively, and Lee could improve his post-up defense.Their best rebounders are Lee and Richardson. Maybe trade Frye for a better rebounding/ more defensive minded PF?

KB- it’s not often that I am forced to look up a word on a basketball blog. Hyalophilia- just beautiful. And I assume that the Knicks’ starting center and PF suffer from a slight case of Hyalophobia…

It is becoming increasingly clear that Zeke’s ability to spot talent has manifested itself again in Balkman (although it seems that he could have been had lower down. ie maybe the Knicks’ GM could have actually leveraged his own abilities…). Obviously, Balkman can handle the job that Jeffires was signed for, and Isiah said after last night’s game that good things happen when he plays the rookie for more than 30 minutes (memo to isiah: you are the coach you get to decide)… why oh why did we sign Jeffires…?

Balkman….why he can’t do this in any given night. One night Isiah played him only around 10 minutes, other night he would only have 16. Once in a 10 games, Balkman would have a sick number like those games….bottom line, Isiah need to put this guy in a situation WHEN Knicks 3rd quarter started to become nightmare…

i do agree with the idea of balkman gettin mad minutes, but we might be messing up causation.

maybe balkman gets 30+ minutes in certain games cause in those first 10 or 15 mins he plays, he makes a huge difference and plays very well, helping the Knicks win and gaining those extra minutes with his great play.

I think Thomas keeps on playing Jeffries to justify signing him in the off-season. He doesn’t really give the Knicks anything. And Balkman can outplay him on a per-minute basis. If they didnt trade Ariza for Francis they wouldn’t have needed to sign Jeffries and could’ve gotten a good back-up point instead.

I thought Balkman and Jeffries played very well together…before we couldn’t sacrifice two positions for defensive purposes because only Curry was able to put up points efficiently. But now that Steph and Francis are waking up that lineup looks pretty good – I haven’t seen the Knicks play defense that well in a long time.

It’s not like Balkman cant play offense. Play him thirty minutes per game and he probably averages 12-14 points, which isnt bad considering he never gets featured. He shoots 49% now, and was a 55% shooter in college, which is pretty great. He gets a lot of dunks and easy baskets, especially in transition. I think he probably is the best knick on the fast break. And he moves superbly without the ball in the half court O.

Also, with his rebounding and steals he generates a lot of possessions, which ultimately translates into points.

I ran a little comparison of Balkman, Lee, Jeffries and Curry, this stat is “gaining and maintaining possession per 40 minutes,” call it GAMP, I like the sound of that. The formula is:

I think this stat captures the genius of Balkman, who is a really unusual player when you get down to it. He is all GAMPed up, his number is off the charts for a small foward. He generates 2.5 times as many possessions per 40 as Curry, who is our starting center. Key to that is averaging more steals than turnovers. He also has more blocks this season than Curry.

I love to knock Isaiah, but this was a really great pick. Found some interesting stuff in his Wiki entry, he was on the number one prep high school team in the country, he beat Florida twice last year, and was the NIT MVP.

High school

Prior to attending Laurinburg Institute, he was at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla. At Laurinburg, he led his team to 40-2 record and No. 1 national prep school ranking. Team won the Prep School Nationals … Also named a finalist for McDonald’s All-American. Teammates at Laurinburg included Boubacar Coly (Xavier), Regis Koundjaia (LSU) and Keith Blanks (Texas A&M). Averaged 23 points and 12 rebounds during the 2001-02 season. Also attended Armwood and Blake High Schools his freshman and sophomore years, respectively.

Balkman was a little known player in high school at the Laurinburg Institute, but he was discovered in 2002 by University of South Carolina coach Dave Odom, who instantly saw his potential. According to Odom, “I remember the first time I saw Renaldo Balkman. I was sitting in Orlando in a gym with (USC assistant coach) Barry Sanderson and I asked him ‘who is that kid with the dreadlocks? That’s the guy we need’. He came back and said nobody knows his name.”[1] Balkman was recruited and signed by Carolina, having received little to no interest from any other major basketball programs.

[edit] Playing career

Balkman had played an integral role in South Carolina’s two wins over eventual national champion Florida during the 2005-2006 college basketball season. He was also the 2006 NIT Most Valuable Player, averaging 9.6 points, 6.3 rebounds, 1.9 assists, 1.7 steals and 1.3 blocks per game.

[edit] 2006 Draft

The Knicks’ choice of Balkman in the first round surprised many, notably ESPN’s Jay Bilas, who noted that projected lottery pick Marcus Williams was still available. ESPN columnist Bill Simmons, among others, joked that perhaps Isiah Thomas thought he was drafting Rolando Blackman, a former Knicks player.[2] There was further controversy when the Knicks’ general manager, Isiah Thomas, claimed that the Phoenix Suns were prepared to take him; the Suns claimed that he wasn’t even “on [their] radar”. In the NBA’s official draft guide, which was released to all reporters covering the draft, Balkman was not included in the list of the 300 top players eligible to be drafted in the 2006-07 rookie class. However, the Knicks selected Balkman with their first of two draft picks, which was 20th overall.

For the 6-foot-8 Balkman, a defensive banger whose style Isiah Thomas has likened to Dennis Rodman and Ron Artest, the 2006 NIT MVP award was a fitting capper to a three-year college career that produced 7.4 points, 5.3 rebounds and a .553 shooting average. The fact that he did not earn a lot of notoriety prior to the Draft only heightened the drama for Renaldo and those around him when the Knicks made him their first of two opening-round picks.[3] Balkman was drafted by the Knicks alongside Mardy Collins of Temple University (29th overall).

Balkman has a totally unique skill set, those are the kind of guys that tend to fall through the cracks in the scouting. I’m not equating him to Anthony Mason or Dennis Rodman, but he’s in that general category, a fantastic yet undersized rebounder, very good at bringing the ball up the floor (like Mason), and capable of guarding centers even though he’s six or eight inches shorter than them.

also worth nothing is that both of those guys were slow to develop, Mason began to emerge when he joined NY at 25, and Rodman emerged around 25 or 26 for Detroit. Balkman is still only 22, 23 in July.

Balkman is one of the few current Knicks who would have fit in nicely with the mid-90’s Knicks. David Lee’s stats look a bit like Charles Oakley’s, but Oak of course played better half-court defense and had that “enforcer” mojo.

He’s like a skinnier Anthony Mason. Balkman and Lee are two tremendous late first-round picks. The only pick I wish Isiah would have made was Andrew Bynum instead of Channing Frye. I was screaming for Bynum that draft night. Bynum is going to be a nice player.

If Balkman wins the battle for big minutes next year at the 3 (he should) and David Lee is manning the 4 (he will)… then more than ever we need to find a pure shooter – ideally a guard, but remember Charles Oakley was deadly out to about 18 feet.

Ron Lewis? Get Salim Stoudamire from Atlanta?

While we’re talking about Oak and the ’90s Nix… I have an assignment for Owen (or his pal Dave Berri). How would the Wages of Wins gang analyze the ’92 – ’96 Knickerbockers? Those were great defensive teams, but ranked (very) low in steals AND blocks.

The WOW formula (and all other stathead formulas) don’t have a way to measure individual defense, aside from those stats. Wins Produced basically makes up for it by giving huge credit for rebounds.

I’ll lay it out this way… tell me what I’m missing:
– WOW assigns a heavy weight to rebounds because on a team level, more rebounds corresponds closely to scoring more points/winning more games.

BUT
– Winning teams tend to have more rebounds not because they are such great jumpers with noses for the ball, but because the opposing team misses more shots.

SO…
– When you apply the formula on an individual basis, the individual rebounder (the big guy) gets credit for a rebound that someone else e.g. a great perimeter defender – is largely responsible for.

I’ve not experimented to see what halving credit for rebounds (or 2/3 credit, or whatever) would do to the rankings…

I know Berri “corrects” for position, but this seems pretty arbitrary… sort of like Einstein throwing in a cosmological constant*. Of course even though Einstein called that his greatest blunder, after he died it turned out he might have been right after all, which screws my whole analogy that was supposed to stick a fork in Dr. Berri :)

Caleb I agree with your rotation. However, lets not get carried away with Oakley being “deadly” from 18 feet, he had on nights and off nights. In order to be considered deadly you have to hit a particular shot night in night out, he did not do that. That being said, I think given his work ethic and promise projected from his decency from the charity stripe, David Lee will be able to match Oak’s jumper with time. That doesn’t mean we don’t need a pure shooter, but I don’t think we need to move mountains to acquire one, it will be at the top of Isiah’s list in the 2007 draft. Until then, Q Stef and Francis are adequate to stretch the defense away from double-teaming Curry, we just need to have all three of them healthy to develop more cohesiveness.

I still think the parts are mismatched – Marbury and Crawford are scorers but only ok as shooters, and Francis is worse – not a bad player, but they’d all look better on a team that was built to run, not feed Curry in the post.

But “fast” Eddie is on the team for the foreseeable future so I do think a pure shooter is a big need. BUT… I agree, it’s ok to be patient until you find the right player.

In this draft my first priority would be a player with star potential, even if he’s a bigger risk. I don’t think anyone outside the top 7 or 8 would be an immediate improvement in the Knicks lineup, so I’d rather think long-term.

Oak? I remember that jumper being very consistent. Of course he never even tried it with a hand in his face – it was a very limited offensive game. But a good fit with Ewing and Mason drawing double teams, which gave him the open looks.

Lee really improved his FTs this year, which makes you think he could develop a jumper.

That trade seems like a dump by Seattle. They get Q who was damaged goods before he got to NY, Francis who’s star has diminished more and more at every stop, Jeffries – who is a nice role player and Frye who for a game or two looks special and then looks lost for a week. Knicks get Lewis proven 20+ scorer with 3 point range, exactly the type of player you would envision for a kick out from the low post, Watson a better than average backup point who can change the tempo and will not kill tyou if he has to start for a week or two, plus a legitamate backup center all of which are things the Knicks currently don’t have.

It’s true Lewis could walk away, but there are so few teams with actual cap room to sign him… I’m guessing there will be a lot of competition in the trade offers. Hopefully other teams will be more excited about Gasol or Vince Carter, and Lewis’ value will dip…

Would you agree that trade value for Francis, Jeffries & Richardson is actually negative – you couldn’t give those guys away (at their current salaries) without including a sweetener?

but yeah – I’d start with a lowball offer.

Lewis would be the best shooter on the team, make opponents pay for double-teaming Curry… and I think Watson is one of the 2 or 3 best defensive PGs in the league – Marbury could play a lot of 2-guard in that lineup.

A Lewis/Curry combination would basically guarantee that the Knicks will remain one of the league’s worst defensive teams for however long Lewis’, probably bloated, contract lasts. Especially because the 3 is Isiah’s designated defender position. It would be yet another deal for a one dimensional player with a huge contract. What makes it even worse is that Lewis’ one skill, like 75% of the Knicks roster, is scoring.

To be honest, I don’t really buy Isiah’s all we need is a good 3-pt shooter for Eddy to pass out of a double team line. Pretty much everyone on this team is a good scorer and most of the backcourt players are at least average 3-pt shooters. What Curry needs is to learn how to pass period because if he can’t pass the ball it doesn’t matter if he’s got Steve Kerr, Jason Kapono, Peja, and Robert Horry on his team, and he needs to learn to play some f-ing defense. In fact, the whole team needs to learn to play defense. Given how unlikely that is I would prefer to just replace say, Jamal Crawford, with a good defender who doesn’t shoot 300 times a game and would also consider moving Frye if I was convinced he couldn’t become an above average defender and I got a good deal for him. And given that this is Isiah Thomas we’re talking about I’d like to see him concentrate mostly on the draft and trades for draft picks, or bottom of the barrel free agents.

Dave Berri just posted on Balkman. It’s quite interesting. Apparently, Balkman’s win score in college was the highest of any small foward in the country. Better than Morrison, Gay, and Carney, who were drafted ahead of him.

?I love what I?ve seen from Renaldo the whole year,? Knicks coach Isiah Thomas said. ?Defensively he can change the game, his rebounding. Whenever we give him 30-plus minutes, he normally has double-figure rebounds and double-figure points. He?s just a guy that somehow finds a way to change a game.?

Sort of begs the question, why dont you play him more Isaiah? Is double figure rebounding and points with very few turnovers something we don’t want from our team?

Not that I wanna throw my shoulder out patting myself on the back or anything. Tee hee. ;)

On Caleb’s critique of Berri – yup; ideally, you want to isolate the factors most closely correlated with winning that are NOT also highly correlated with each other. That’s the problem of basketball’s interdependent trials. It’s not a fatal flaw necessarily in WOW, just means you have to be really careful and limited with interpretations.

Dave Crockett – That was a great great post on Balkman. That info about his wingspan and standing reach was really interesting. Good thing he can afford custom suits these days with that first round money…

As for whom to target this off-season, Isiah must look to improve in three areas (in order or importance)

1. Basketball IQ/Decision-making

So many Knick turnovers happen because the ball is carelessly placed in harm’s way. Everyone who handles the ball significantly for NY is implicated in this. Q-Rich is one of the only players on the roster whose decision-making doesn’t make me cringe. (As well as Marbury has played, and at times Francis, both are poor at feeding the post and neither is especially good at running the fast break.) The Knicks need more players, almost irrespective of position, who think the game well.

2. Shooting range

That tends to be fairly easy to get, either in the draft or on the open market. The big thing is, what you really want is shooting range paired with…

I think Lewis is below average, maybe average at best defensively. I’m not saying that moving Crawford for Lewis would be downgrading defensively. All I’m saying is that it’s very difficult to have an above average team defense when all but a couple players in your rotation are below average defenders, as is currently the case with the Knicks. Lewis would only add to this problem by taking minutes from Balkman and Jeffries.

Dave, your three offseason needs are right on the money. Interior D would also be nice, but I guess that’s a bit more complicated with our young three headed monster inside.

Ideally the Knicks move Crawford and replace him with a guy that fills all three of Dave’s needs.

“Jeffrightened”-a term coined by Knicks fans to describe the state of mind when one sees what they think is Channing Frye making an offensive move, only to realize a second later that it’s Jared Jeffries.

“I gotta give Isiah THIS much credit – unlike LB, when blatantly shown that a player (Lee and now Balkman) deserves more playing time, Isiah will usually bow to the obvious.”

he doesn’t go nearly far enough with either of those guys. it’s been clear since early on this year that Lee should be starting and Balkman should be playing 20+ minutes every game, no matter who’s healthy.

It’s true, Lewis isn’t much of a defender, and maybe we should aim higher… but he can shoot – not just score – which I think would be a serious shot in the arm.

We’d probably be better off trading Curry while his value is high, but somehow I doubt that’s going to happen. As long as he’s on the team, he has no value whatsoever unless we’re dumping the ball to him every time down the court. Might as well bow to that reality and surround him with shooters.

Balkman could still get starter’s minutes split between the 2 and 3. Q could spell him on his monthly visits from lying in traction at the hospital. JJ could shag balls.

We’d still desperately need an interior presence and a quick, defense-minded point guard. Earl Watson, anyone?

Nothing against Frye, but we have a starting center and power forward already, and what he offers is not defense. So I say he’s expendable.

Mavs coach Avery Johnson dismissed remarks made by New York coach Isiah Thomas over the last two days that the Knicks had little chance to win this game. “If they’re so helpless, tell them to stay in the locker room and forfeit the game,”

jon abbey said:
———————
?Jeffrightened?-a term coined by Knicks fans to describe the state of mind when one sees what they think is Channing Frye making an offensive move, only to realize a second later that it?s Jared Jeffries.
———————-

he doesn?t go nearly far enough with either of those guys. it?s been clear since early on this year that Lee should be starting and Balkman should be playing 20+ minutes every game, no matter who?s healthy.

Right, which is why I mentioned that I was only giving him “THIS much credit”…hehe.

Just that he was better than LB in that department, which is good to see (although, as you mention, he could be even better).

This isn’t the first time Isiah has said Balkman deserves playing time. A month or so back he said Balkman is forcing his way into the rotation and then all we saw of Balkman was some end of the quarter foul saving time.

As for Lee will eveyrone get over it. Whta difference does it make if he starts or comes in at th esix minute mark as long as Jerome James isn’t starting? He was averaging 30.9 minutes per game which was most among PF or PF/SF and trailed only Q among Fs? There are Frye, Lee, Q, Balkman, Jefferies to divvy up 96 minutes plus some time at C for Frye. Should Frye just get thrown to the wayside?

The free throws drove me batshit insane that game. We did so much stuff right – especially the turnovers and rebounding – and we even played some good defense and forced some turnovers (yeah they shot a high percentage but their shots were ridiculous, it is Dallas after all). If we had just hit them we could have kept it competitive down the wire.

A Mavs game seems like a throwaway game for us anyway, but losing Marbury and Frye to injuries during the game is an extremely concerning thought. Do we know how serious either of these are?

If either one of these guys goes down for a prolongued period of time, kiss the playoffs goodbye. At that point, it?s just time to play fantasy or AirPlay NBA Live. Speaking of which – has anyone else tried the NBA Live game? The free trial looks pretty cool, and it actually works on my cell phone.

Marbury and Frye will both be playing tomorrow, Marbury said he could have returned against Dallas but the game was out of reach:

“Frye: Pending the outcome of an eye exam after practice Wednesday, Frye said two scratches on his right cornea haven’t affected his vision. He did light shooting Wednesday with protective glasses and said he’ll play against Portland.”